222 THE VOYAGE. /ETAT. 22. 



writes to me: "Your father is as vividly in my mind's 

 eye as if it was only a week ago that I was in the Beagle 

 with him ; his genial smile and conversation can never be 

 forgotten by any who saw them and heard them. I was sent 

 on two or three occasions away in a boat with him on some 

 of his scientific excursions, and always looked forward to 

 these trips with great pleasure, an anticipation that, unlike 

 many others, was always realised. I think he was the only 

 man I ever knew against whom I never heard a word said ; 

 and as people when shut up in a ship for five years are apt to 

 get cross with each other, that is saying a good deal. Cer- 

 tainly we were always so hard at work, we had no time to 

 quarrel, but if we had done so, I feel sure your father would 

 have tried (and have been successful) to throw oil on the 

 troubled waters." 



Admiral Stokes, Mr. King, Mr. Usborne, and Mr. Ha- 

 mond, all speak of their friendship with him in the same 

 warm-hearted way. 



Of the life on board and on shore his letters give some 

 idea. Captain Fitz-Roy was a strict officer, and made him- 

 self thoroughly respected both by officers and men. The 

 occasional severity of his manner was borne with because 

 every one on board knew that his first thought was his 

 duty, and that he would sacrifice anything to the real welfare 

 of the ship. My father writes, July 1834, "We all jog on 

 very well together, there is no quarrelling on board, which is 

 something to say. The Captain keeps all smooth by rowing 

 every one in turn." The best proof that Fitz-Roy was valued 

 as a commander is given by the fact that many * of the crew 

 had sailed with him in the Beagle's former voyage, and there 

 were a few officers as well as seamen and marines, who had 

 served in the Adventure or Beagle during the whole of that 

 expedition. 



My father speaks of the officers as a fine determined set of 



* ' Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle? vol. ii. p. 21., 



